SOC 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Dependent And Independent Variables, Santa Barbara City College, Fundamental Attribution Error
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Covariation model - states that in order to form an attribution about what caused a person"s behavior, we systematically note the pattern between the presence (or absence) of possible causal factors and whether or not the behavior occurs. People are most likely to make an internal attribution when the consensus and distinctiveness of the act are low, but consistency is high. People are likely to make an external attribution if consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency are all high. When consistency is low, we cannot make a clear internal or external attribution and so resort to a special kind of external or situational attribution, one that assumes something unusual or peculiar is going on in these circumstances. Studies have shown that people don"t use consensus information as much as kelley"s theory predicted. They rely more on consistency and distinctiveness information when forming attributions. Correspondence bias: the tendency to infer that people"s behavior corresponds to or matches their disposition (personality)
